Two brothers die along with car dealership

[FoMoJo]

A pretty grim tale...

Pennsylvania auto business collapses from recession and two owners are among casualties

Third-generation car dealers Gregory and Randolph Graham watched helplessly over the past year as their business collapsed under the weight of the recession. Now the Graham brothers are gone.

Gregory, 61, went out to the dealership lot in the middle of the night last month, set fire to some of his vehicles and died of a heart attack next to the burning wreckage. Then, over the weekend, Randolph, 51, was found dead, slumped over the wheel of his car in what may have been a suicide.

In this western Pennsylvania town of 1,700, residents say the Grahams were victims of the economy, crushed by tight credit, plunging sales and more than $1 million in state and federal tax liens against the business.

"To feel like they were so backed into a corner that that was the only way out is just horrible," said Rachel Roehrig, who went to school with the brothers and is now director of the area Chamber of Commerce.

The brothers' tragic end was a slow progression of painful events, some known only to acquaintances, others to passers-by observant enough to notice that the number of Pontiacs, Buicks and Jeeps on the lot at Graham Colonial Motors was dwindling -- a sign that the brothers didn't have the money to replenish their inventory. The Graham family has declined to comment.

The dealership was founded in the 1960s in downtown Ligonier by Albert Graham, Gregory and Randolph's grandfather. In the 1980s, the brothers moved the dealership to a spot just outside downtown, where the now-abandoned building stands, about 55 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

The Graham family was a pillar of the community, supplying cars for the annual parade held in celebration of Fort Ligonier, the French and Indian War-era military compound for which the town was named.

Gregory was a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Randolph was once a deacon at his Presbyterian church. Both were married for more than 20 years, and they had five children between them.

Often, the Graham brothers would eat lunch with their employees. Sometimes, their sister, Christy Lopushansky, who was also the dealership secretary, would bring brownies.

"It was just like a little family," 52-year-old Dennis Rummel, a former mechanic in the service department, said while sitting at the bar at Ligonier's VFW post.

In February 2007, Graham Colonial Motors was hit with the first in a series of tax liens. It was around that time that Rummel was laid off. Several more rounds of layoffs followed as the dealership's troubles deepened

[Submariner]

Those piles of shit took the easy way out while their families suffer the financial burden. 

[2o6]

Those piles of shit took the easy way out while their families suffer the financial burden. 

When there's a suicide, usually there's some underlying emotional and mental problem, not just because "they were weak and selfish".

[S204STi]

When there's a suicide, usually there's some underlying emotional and mental problem, not just because "they were weak and selfish".

Yes and no.

Yes there are strong emotional and mental problems behind suicide, but it's still a dick move to simply bail on your responsibilities and leave your family to clean up the mess.

[dazzleman]

Very sad situation.  I don't know enough to say more than that.

[the Teuton]

Today's mission:  I will find someone with a Graham license plate bracket and take a picture of it.

[Rupert]

Yes and no.

Yes there are strong emotional and mental problems behind suicide, but it's still a dick move to simply bail on your responsibilities and leave your family to clean up the mess.

A dick move is running away with all the savings account. Suicide is something else.

[dazzleman]

A dick move is running away with all the savings account. Suicide is something else.

I agree.  I would really hesitate to condemn these people, as some seem to be doing.  I think that for people to commit suicide over a business failure, there must have been some other mental problem, because people endure business failures all the time without killing themselves.  Maybe it was the thing that put them over the edge.  Whatever the case is, it's a very sad situation for the families, and I don't think it makes anything better to condemn those who may have taken their own lives.

[SVT666]

Those piles of shit took the easy way out while their families suffer the financial burden. 

Only one committed suicide.  The other died of a heart attack.

[Cobra93]

I blame Obama.

[Byteme]

I blame Obama.

I was going to blame Bush.

Seriously though, this sounds like an act of desperation.  I can understand the desperation that might lead to an otherwise sane person to take their life.   Life's going good and suddenly the bottom drops out with multiple problems.